Intent document builder
Write an intent document an AI agent or a new hire can act on without asking you first: outcome, trade-offs, open questions, revisit triggers and a named owner, checked as you type.
A test: could two reasonable reviewers read this and disagree about whether it happened? If yes, it isn't precise enough yet.
The condition that makes this the right priority this quarter, not a permanent truth. Skip this and the team will treat the intent as timeless, and permanent intent is almost always wrong intent.
Name the actual surface. "Engineering" is not a surface a workflow can be scoped to.
Every intent involves giving something up. If the trade-off isn't named, the system resolves it for you, in whatever direction the ambiguity allows.
A good document doesn't decide everything. It names what's unresolved and who owns closing it, instead of quietly making the reader invent an answer.
The condition that would make this document wrong. Without one, it goes stale the first time reality moves and nobody notices for a quarter.
A name, not a team. "The platform team owns this" is how a document ends up owned by no one the day someone changes roles.
Reads as
Blank
Start with desired outcome. It's the one everything else hangs off.
0 of 7 fields specific enough to act on
How it works
- 1Fill in seven fields: desired outcome, why now, the system it governs, decided trade-offs, open questions, revisit triggers, and the owner.
- 2Each field is checked as you write. An outcome or trigger with no number in it is flagged, and so are vague verbs like "improve" or "streamline".
- 3A trade-off has to name what you're giving up, and the owner has to be a person rather than a team.
- 4When six fields read as strong, the document is system-readable. Copy it out as markdown.
The argument behind it
The tool is the practical half. The case for why this cost is real, and what to do once you've measured it, is in the Opinion it came from.
Read “Intent architecture” →